Newly Self Employed Couple Trying to Purchase Next Rental Propert

[Kelsey Illuzzi]

Hello! Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read, respond and offer some helpful advice! My fiance and I are newbies at real estate investing. We started small by purchasing a duplex for 55K last summer with an FHA loan. At that time, my fiance was full-time as a mailman and I was a part time admin at a home nursing agency. As of September 2019, my fiance quit his full-time job to fully pursue our online Amazon business. I now act as an Amazon consultant full time as well as assist in managing our own business. As of April 1st, 2020, I was laid off my part time job due to COVID. We have 10K set aside strictly for our next real estate investment down payment that we wanted to purchase within 18 months of the last one. We found a duplex we want to move forward with, but our lender is telling us we won't be able to make any new purchases until we have been self-employed for two years and able to provide two years worth of tax returns.

Is this legit? Is there something we can do to get around this? It's not like we don't have income... We have our current rental income of $450/month plus we would then rent out the side we current live in. Then move to one side of the new one while also renting the other side. I'm assuming we need to get creative, so if anyone has experience with something similar, I would tremendously appreciate any input! Please let me know if you need any other info!

Thank you thank you thank you!!!